Wednesday, July 20, 2016 at 1:31PM My first true actress love as a wee boy watching her movies on TV whenever they'd pop up. She would have been 78 today. Happy Birthday in the Cosmic Cinema Pantheon, Natalie. Here are 12 glorious photos of her and a few listicles...
Tuesday, July 12, 2016 at 11:30PM Just answering six reader questions this afternoon for time constraints so we'll do another handful later in the week. Thanks for all the great Qs, readers! Here we go.
GSHAQ: Do you feel the gap is widening between the stories told in mainstream movies and contemporary issues? Oops, that might be an essay.
NATHANIEL: This question hurts my brain but I'll try. I do fear for the health of cinema which directly addresses contemporary issues. For a long time the movies have preferred past-tense filters for social and political issues, once it's safer since history has sorted out consensus. The best of those past-tense films also address the here and now through their resonant power (see: Selma). And there's something to be said for the facility that good genre films have in addressing the way we live via metaphor (The Babadook, Bridesmaids, and Melancholia are MUCH better films about depression than some earnest dramas that directly take it on) Even superhero films can be reflective of the here and now in spite of (or maybe because of) all their mixed messages and contradictory 'have it both ways' politics. I don't think it's an accident that Batman v Superman and Captain America: Civil War, whatever their disparate qualities, are asking the same questions about Might Equalling Right and whether we have the right checks and balances in place for those in power. These are issues that we're facing in very real ways all over the world. But, that said, we do need a reenergized contemporary cinema. If we can only think about tough issues through metaphor or by dwelling on the past, we have some maturation to do as a society!
It's true that movies made in the right-now about the right-now can age quickly (see movies we've recently discussed like Working Girl) but if they're any good -- and sometimes even when they aren't -- they make great time capsules about the way we were, the things we valued, and the issues that laid claim to our collective mental real estate.
BVR: Rank the animated movies from the Disney Renaissance (1989-1999). Extra: which is the most underrated?
NATHANIEL: This is cheating and asking for a top ten list but here's a NON commital answer after the jump...
Tuesday, July 12, 2016 at 10:30AM 
Julie Christie, Ursula Andress, and Catherine Deneuve in 1966
Saturday, June 18, 2016 at 10:00AM Time for a quick diversion - tweets that amused or edified this week, somewhat randomly selected.
Get it, Kangaroo. pic.twitter.com/ghyR1msaCJ
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 14, 2016
Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 12:10PM Murtada here. Iconoclastic British filmmaker Sally Potter (Orlando, The Man Who Cried, Ginger & Rosa) started shooting her new movie The Party, this week. The film, which unfolds in real time, revolves around a drinks party held by a London couple to celebrate the wife’s promotion to minister in the Shadow Cabinet. It is described by its producers like so:
a comedy wrapped around a tragedy. It starts as a celebration and ends with blood on the floor.”
Intriguing.
The cast includes Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Timothy Spall, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones and two TFE favorites Kristin Scott Thomas and Patricia Clarkson. One of whom might be playing the lead role of the celebrated minister. Since the movie is set in London we are guessing Scott Thomas. Not that we don't think Clarkson can rock an English accent...
